The article provides a basic description and taxonomy of sovereign wealth funds, rapidly gaining importance in the international monetary and financial systems. SFWs are pools of assets owned and managed directly or indirectly by governments to achieve specific objectives. Tentative estimates of...

This paper considers various options replication methods. Firstly, a specific type of barrier option, an up-and-out call, is considered. Other barrier options are briefly also described, and various types of barriers are considered. Secondly, a general definition of replication methods is...

Three approaches toward the determination of fixed swap rates are presented in this article: a swap as a portfolio of bonds with a fixed and floating coupon, a swap as a portfolio of forwards, and a swap as the difference between the cap and the floor (zero-collar). Later in the paper, credit...

Hedging strategies represent basic instrument used toward eliminating financial risk. Increasing volatility of financial markets and their globalization also lead to higher financial risks. These aspects are especially important for transitional and small open economies. The basic goal of the...

The Czech tax system is undergoing radical transformation. Among the many forthcoming changes, several features can be identified, which alter the structure of tax asymmetries. This paper uses an option-based model of direct taxation to examine a controversial new thin-capitalization rule,...

In general, there exist many ways to detect the fair value of financial derivatives. However, each of them is suitable for different purposes. For example, when the payoff function is not very simple or the underlying process is too complex, the approach of Monte Carlo simulation can be useful....